Between the smartphones and tablets running their respective operating systems, Apple and Google lay claim to the vast majority of mobile users worldwide. At the end of November 2012, Chitika Insights took a six-month look back at how Web usage shares compared between the two systems. With only a 2% share change, the data showcased how not much had changed during that period of time. Now that holiday sales and gift-giving are behind us, we extended the study through early January.
While mobile Web browsing devices have firmly cemented their place in our daily lives, the battle between Android and iOS is as hot as ever. Between the smartphones and tablets running their respective operating systems, Apple and Google lay claim to the vast majority of mobile users worldwide. At the end of November 2012, Chitika Insights took a six-month look back at how Web usage shares compared between the two systems. With only a 2% share change, the data showcased how not much had changed during that period of time. Now that holiday sales and gift-giving are behind us, we extended the study through early January.

To quantify this study, Chitika Insights conducted a user agent analysis on billions of ad impressions from the Chitika ad network, spanning a time frame from May 27th, 2012 to January 12th, 2012. Looking only at impressions coming from iOS- and Android-equipped devices (both tablets and smartphones), we were then able to observe the difference in Web traffic volume between these operating systems.

Much like our previous study, the overall traffic distribution between iOS and Android has changed little over this long time period, with no noticeable long-term trend emerging.

These usage numbers underscore how the mobile marketplace is evolving in North America. In regards to smartphones, a recent Kantar Worldpanel ComTech report shows Apple maintaining a slim sales lead over the wide variety of Android-focused manufacturers, who have steadily increased their domestic market presence over the long term. However, analyst accounts along with the usage numbers we have observed, point to the tablet marketplace still largely being dominated by Apple’s iPad. As noted in our last report, Apple’s advantage in this marketplace is the largest contributing factor to its lead over Android when it comes to mobile Web traffic.